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Fine Arts Department

art, art history, & film

Fine Arts Featured Story

Thirty-four members of the Boston College class of 2015 were awarded Fine Arts degrees on May 18th – twelve in Art History, eleven in Film Studies, and eleven in Studio Art. Ten Fine Arts graduates received Latin honors of cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa inducted four graduating Fine Arts majors into its Omicron of Massachusetts chapter on May 17th. Read more about our 2015 graduates. Above: Kenya Danino's graduation cap.

Student Profile

Rising junior Jean Bower has packed a lot of art into her first two years at Boston College. She had never taken an art history class prior to starting college, and describes her experience of being exposed to the great artistic masterpieces of humankind as being life-changing. Professor Kenneth Craig, one of the instructors in the ARTH1101 and ARTH1102 classes that enraptured Jean during her freshman year, is now her advisor. He observes "Jean possesses two traits that are markers of the very best students: she is intellectually curious and eminently teachable. She listens carefully and asks thoughtful questions. But perhaps her most important quality is 'empathy,' which allows her to enter into the spirit of the humanistic disciplines."

Jean's enthusiasm for art history led to an expeditious proficiency in the subject that, by the end of her sophomore year, helped her secure not one, but two highly sought-after summer internships at Boston-area museums. In her spare time, she is assisting Professor Jeffery Howe in preparing a digital tour for this fall's McMullen Museum exhibition, John La Farge and the Recovery of the Sacred. And earlier this year, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences named Jean as a "Sophomore Scholar," meaning she had achieved an academic ranking placing her in the top three percent of her class.

Read Jean's reflections on how the instructors in the Fine Arts Department opened her eyes to the world of art and helped instill in her a desire to share this passion with others.